The on-line version of this newsletter can be found here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-07-26 -- Wikifunctions is up (read-only)

Wikifunctions is up on www.wikifunctions.org 🥳

For now, there’s really not much to see or do. The built-in objects have been loaded to the wiki. In the next few days, we will create some initial pages (the main page, legal stuff, documentation, etc.), and also the first function, as discussed last week. The first function will be *“join strings”*, also known as concatenate.

We encountered a number of issues while deploying, and it was fascinating to fix these live while the community was watching. There are still a number of high-priority bugs, and we need to fix those before we get to the next step. The current plan is to open the wiki for editing on Tuesday, August 1st 2023, and we’ll update you if that changes. Read more about our deployment plan https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2022-08-05 and planned dates https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Wikipedia/Updates/2023-07-20. Welcome Megan!

As we are making our initial deployment, we also welcome Megan Neisler https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MNeisler_(WMF) to our team. Megan is joining us from Analytics to help us with instrumenting Wikifunctions, counting the important numbers, and counting the numbers correctly, in order to help us understand how WIkifunctions grows and where contributors stumble. I'll let Megan introduce herself with her own words.

*Hi everyone! I've been with the Wikimedia Foundation for eight years, working in various roles including project and event coordinator but have always had a strong interest in data analysis. I started working with the Product Analytics team in 2017 and since then I've had the opportunity to provide data insights for several projects including discussion tools on talk pages, content and section translation tools, and the desktop improvements project. While working on these projects, I've discovered new insights about the community and learned new approaches to address the challenges of making data and insights more accessible.*

*Aside from work, I enjoy being outside whenever possible and have spent lots of my free time hiking, camping, or just walking around my town of Leesburg, Virginia where I currently live. Lately, I spend a good amount of time exploring playgrounds with my 3-year-old daughter.*

*I'm very excited to have the opportunity to support Abstract Wikipedia and look forward to working with the team!*

Welcome Megan! It’s great to have you on the team. We are hiring

If you want to work with Megan and the rest of the team, here’s an opportunity: the Wikimedia Foundation is hiring for a Senior Software Engineer https://boards.greenhouse.io/wikimedia/jobs/5191315 for Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia! As you can see from our Beta, there are so many more things we need to work on. Our team members have been spread over countries in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The positions can be remote and can be outside the United States.

If you are interested in Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia, please apply. If you know someone with the relevant experience and interest, please let them know!